Men's Swimming and Diving Looks to Achieve Another Successful season in 2009-10

The Crimson is ready to challenge for the top echelon of the Ivy
League once again this winter, as the men’s swimming and
diving team returns 26 members of last year’s team that
finished 8-1 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League. Harvard concluded
2008-09 with a No. 20 national ranking and placed second at both
the Ivy League and ECAC Championships. The team qualified two
swimmers for the NCAA Championships and earned 16 All-Ivy League
selections, representing swimmers from seven events.

Harvard will be led by captains Tommy Gray and Alex Meyer, two of
six seniors on the Crimson roster. “Gray and Meyer have
quality leadership skills,” said Harvard head coach Tim
Murphy. “We will look to them , as well as seniors Robert
Lynch, Rick McKellar, Simone Melillo and Mason Brunnick for
direction on the deck and in the water.”

The Crimson will be tested early in the season with meets against
Texas A&M, a perennial top 25 NCAA Division I team, at home on
Nov. 13 and away meets at Cornell and Columbia .
Below is a summary of the team by event:

• In the breaststroke, returnsMelillo, Justin Davidson and
Will Heyburn. Melillo garnered two All-Ivy League nods last season,
helping Harvard finish first in the 200 medley relay and second in
the 400 medley relay. Davidson, meanwhile, swam eighth in 200 the
breaststroke, 10th in the 100 breaststroke and 16th in the 200 IM
at the 2009 Ivy League Championships. Heyburn placed top 16 in the
100 breastroke at Ivy’s. Harvard also welcomes freshman Owen
Wurzbacher who will make an impact on the breaststroke corps and
individual medley events. All will need to be competitive to meet
expectations.

• Nicholas Tan, Niall Janney and McKellarare Harvard’s
top returning butterfly swimmers. Tan competed at the 2009 FINA
World Championships for Singapore in the butterfly and placed 10th
in the 100 fly at theIvy meet, while Janney showed improvement
during his freshman season and finished fourth in the 400 IM and
eighth in the 200 IM at the ECAC Championships.McKellar, a
versatile swimmer, was fifth in the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly
at last year’s ECAC meet. Freshmen Ryan Cutter and Greg Roop
add to the depth in this event for the Crimson. This group will
need to step up and fill the void left by the departure of the
Jones twins.

• Five-time All-Ivy League honoree Jordan Diekema leads
Harvard’s backstroke swimmers. Diekema helped Harvard win the
200 medley relay and grab second in the 400 medley relay at the
2009 Ivy League Championships and was a three-time All-Ivy
selection as a freshman in 2008. Robert Newell, who won the 'B'
final in the 200 IM and was eighth in 100 backstroke at the Ivy
League Championships, is looking to have an even more successful
sophomore campaign. Newcomer Greg Pelton will also compete in this
event, as well as in the freestyle.

• Returners Blake Lewkowitz, Matthew McLean, Meyer, Mason
Brunnick, and Gray give Harvard quality depth in the Mid and
Distance freestyle events. Meyerswam for Team USA at the 2009 FINA
World Championships in Rome, Italy this summer in the 25K Open
Water Swimming event. Last season, he competed at the 2009 NCAA
Championships and placed 25th in the 1650 free and was 44th in the
500 free. He was also named first-team All-Ivy League after winning
the 1000 and 1650 freestyle events at Ivy Champs. Co-Captain Tommy
Gray improved as a junior, earning eighth-place in the 1000 free
and 10th in the 1650 free. Lewkowitz earned three top-six finishes
at the Ivy League Championships last winter. He took third in the
1000 free, fourth in the 1650 free and sixth in the 500
free.Brunnick, who helped the 800 free relay win the event at the
2008 EISL Championships, finished 11th in the 500, 1000 and 1650
freestyle races at the Ivy League meet. McLean finished fifth in
the 200 free and ninth in the 500 free as a freshman at ECAC
Championships.

In the Sprint freestyle events, returning swimmers Nick DuCille,
Will Heyburn, Graham Frankel, and Eric Taylor are expected to
contribute Heyburn was eighth in the 100 freestyle at the Ivy
League Championships. Frankel posted top times at the ECAC
Championships cruising to second in the 100 free, fourth in the 50
free and sixth in the 200 free.

Harvard welcomes the addition of rookie Brendan McIntee to the
freestyle corps. McIntee will need to make an immediate
contribution to the team.

• Harvard’s diving team is comprised of four
individuals, including ZacRanta, who has already qualified for the
2010 NCAA Zone A Diving Championships. At that meet in 2009, Zac
placed 11th. In Ivy League competition, Ranta finished fifth in the
three-meter and ninth in one-meter diving in 2009. Henry Winslow
and Taylor Nickel supply depth and experience on the boards, while
adding freshman Michael Stanton to the team. Stanton has extensive
national team experience.

Murphy enters his 12th season at the helm of the Crimson with an
impressive 91-7 record and six Ivy League titles. Murphy recently
served as an assistant coach with Team USA at the World University
Games in July, which were held in Belgrade, Serbia. Keith Miller is
in his 18th season as Harvard’s men’s and women’s
diving coach and has a string of league diving champions, including
Lucas Sanders '08 the most recent champion in 2007.

Kevin Tyrrell was introduced as Harvard’s assistant coach in
July and is no stranger to the Crimson program. Tyrrell, who worked
as a volunteer coach for the Crimson program from 2000-04, helping
Harvard to two Ivy League titles, most recently served as the head
coach of the United States Virgin Islands National Team. He
finished his tenure leading the Virgin Island swimmers to 90% best
times at the 2009 FINA World Swimming Championships in Rome.

Harvard begins the 2009-10 season at home, hosting Texas A&M
at Blodgett Pool Friday, Nov. 13. The team will open Ivy League
action in a tri-meet against Cornell and Dartmouth in Ithaca, N.Y.,
Nov. 14.